The 16 Sexiest Sports Illustrated Rookies 1999-2014 [PHOTOS]

As we announced yesterday, Swim Daily officially confirmed that Emily Ratajkowski will be making her debut in this year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. We celebrated by tweeting a meme we made and two seconds later, boom, our masterpiece got RT’d by bothMJ Day and Emily Ratajkowski. And while most would be content to just hang up the jersey and retire after a performance like that, we’re just getting started with our SI coverage.

For the next two weeks, keep checking both COED and Swim Daily around 2 PM. Swim Daily will be announcing a new rookie at 2 PM every day at which point we’ll be scrambling to give you everything you want/need to know about that model. For example, today they announced Hannah Ferguson and we posted our own picks for Hannah’s hottest photos at 2:20. That’s a commitment to beauty.

So how is it that we’re already announcing the “Sexiest Rookie of the 2014 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue” when only four (Gigi Hadid, Sara Sampaio, Emily Ratajkowski and Hannah Ferguson) of the 12 women have been announced? Because one of those names is Emily Ratajkowski and we’ve been dying to see her in the magazine for years. Obviously we have to wait until February 18th to see what’s been photographed but I can almost assure that Emily’s going to be the winner.

CLICK EACH MODEL’S PHOTO TO SEE THEIR FULL GALLERY

Yamila Diaz

Rookie Year: 1999 | Country: Argentina | Appearances To Date: 9

Three must be the magic number for this Argentine model. Only three years after she had been discovered by a Milan modeling agency, Yamila made the 1999 issue of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Three years later, she landed the cover in 2002. Since then, Yamila’s popularity has taken off with brands like Victoria’s Secret and CoverGirl.

Elsa Benitez

Elsa had appeared on the cover of all sorts of International magazines before she was offered the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue gig in 2000. It didn’t take very long for her to be noticed, though, as the following year she was granted an appearance on the cover.

Marisa Miller

Marisa first gained attention for posing in the first issue of Perfect 10 (1997). It took a little longer, though, before she really hit it big. It wasn’t until she met famed photographer Mario Testino while working at a surf camp (2001) that she found a place in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. From that point until 2008, Marisa posed for the magazine. Perhaps her most famous shot from that period features a photo of her wearing only an iPod.

Jessica White

Representing Buffalo, NY, Jessica got her first start with Sports Illustrated in 2003. With exception to 2006, Jessica was in every issue from then until 2011.

Frankie Rayder

Rookie Year: 2004 | Country: USA | Appearances To Date: 2

Once named the Sexiest Woman in the World by both GQ and The New York Times, Frankie first appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2004, nearly 7 years after she got her start in runway modeling.

Anne V

You might not be able to pronounce her full last name (Vyalitsyna), but you sure as heck would be able to pick her out of a crowd. Anne is perhaps most famous for her eight-consecutive-year run of Appearances To Date in the SI Swimsuit Issue. The release party of the 2010 issue was where she first met her husband Adam Levine. Luckily, they’ve split ways. Anne has yet to land the cover.

Brooklyn Decker

If you saw our post on Brooklyn Decker Before She Was Famous, you’re probably aware that she wasn’t always a big star. Having said that, Brooklyn knew she had something special when she auditioned for the SI Swimsuit Edition only six months after moving to NYC. She landed the cover in 2010.

Bar Refaeli

Forget that Super Bowl commercial, Bar has been dropping the jaws of Sports Illustrated readers since 2007 when she became the first Israeli to pose for the magazine. Two years later, she landed the cover — a year before Brooklyn (who had been a rookie the year before Bar).

Melissa Baker

Rookie Year: 2008 | Country: USA | Appearances To Date: 1

It would seem that Melissa has sadly taken leave of the modeling world, but at least we’ll always have her photos from the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue to look back on.

Cintia Dicker

Cintia Dicker just might be the hottest freckled red-head on the planet. And considering the world’s obsession with that kind of look, it’s amazing that it took Sports Illustrated so long to put her in their magazine. What’s important, though, is that they’ve kept her onboard ever since.

Chrissy Teigen

This Thai-Norwegian model got her start as an IGN Babe in 2004 but it wasn’t until her friend Brooklyn Decker introduced her to the editors at Sports Illustrated that she was cast in 2010. Subsequently, she won the official award of “Rookie of the Year.”

Kate Upton

Anything that can be said about Kate Upton has undoubtably already been covered on this blog. All we need to say is that besides being the face of Guess in 2010-2011, Kate’s appearance in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue was what rocketed her to such big heights.

Nina Agdal

Nina’s stock is on the rise after making her first appearance in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue last year. She’s since appeared in numerous publications and is rumored to be on the short-list for potential cover models for the 2013 issue of SI.

Hannah Davis

Hannah Davis is taking the modeling world by storm after she was linked to Derek Jeter just months ago. Since then, Hannah got a gig as “Genie,” the DirectTV spokesmodel and is a shoe-in for “Rookie of the Year.”

Emily Ratajkowski

After begging and pleading for a few years, Emily Ratajkowski has finally made it into the hallowed pages of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. We’re not saying that either Emily nor SI would have lost out if this connection didn’t happen (they’re both just fine withot each other), but we’re just really happy that it did.